Another poorly ZX81...

[sirmorris]

Excellent! Another one saved

[XorA]

Has anyone bought a ZX81 in the last five years which actually worked? Lol. Every one I get my hands on seems to have a problem somewhere.

I've bought 9 in the last year and to my amazement they all worked! One even had bird sh*t on it!

G

[Rink]

Excellent! Another one saved

Hahahaha. Yep. This one was even more important than the last one - because it's my own.

I've bought 9 in the last year and to my amazement they all worked! One even had bird sh*t on it!

G

LMAO. I think I'd rather fault find inside the unit than scrape bird crap off the outside.

[1024MAK]

Has anyone bought a ZX81 in the last five years which actually worked? Lol. Every one I get my hands on seems to have a problem somewhere.

Yep! Got at least two that did not need any repairs (one apparently had been only used as a ornament on a wall, it was listed as non-working because the seller had no PSU, no leads and no idea about it!).

Note that when I have too much time on my hands, I sometimes buy non-working eBay Zeddies, that is to say, where the seller says that they don't work. The last three (all from the same seller) did indeed have faults, all need new keyboards. Two gave a "K" when powered up. One appeared dead. Careful inspection revealed that the ROM was in the middle of the socket instead of at the bottom of the socket. When the slightly bent pins were sorted, and with it back in the correct position, the Zeddy fired up to the normal "K" .

The most common fault with the ZX81's that I have obtained is cracked/torn/broken keyboard tails/ribbons/membranes.
The only other faults have been two duff ULAs, and the 3.5mm jack sockets needing "adjustment" with a suitable screwdriver due to the contacts not making good contact with the plugs. Oh, and some duff modulators (two at the last count).

So far, I have not had any faulty Z80's in a Zeddy, but have had duff Z80's in other computers (in the last one, the darn thing worked for over an hour before it died on me ).

I do wish people wouldn't loose most of the screws though

Mark